Piece of cake … look back through your most liked Instagram posts for any common themes (eg food) and use them in future campaigns.
Photograph: Alamy

Instagram hit the 400 million user milestone in September, which just shows to what extent the platform has powered to success in the past five years. Its accomplishments are based on the fact that it offers a fantastic user experience. Consumers love it because it feels real, it’s beautifully simple and is a rich and creative way to tell stories.

Picture perfect: how marketers can harness the power of images

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The social media site is also a powerful ally for advertisers, offering them an opportunity to reach a new audience and build a community, raising awareness and even shifting perceptions.

Brands such as GoPro and Airbnb are brilliant at engaging customers on Instagram. But while these brands may already “get it” in terms of using the platform in their cross-channel marketing strategies, the same can’t be said for the whole industry. Too often marketers jump on a social network without considering its specific ins and outs. Facebook, Twitter and Instagram all present their own opportunities for marketers, as well as unique challenges.

So, to coincide with the Instagram’s fifth anniversary, here are some top tips for marketers to better engage their audiences and generate brand loyalty when using this channel.

Involve your customers

Airbnb’s Instagram strategy is a great example of how to engage and involve your customers. Some of the beautiful holiday snaps taken by its customers that mention the brand’s handle (@airbnb) or capture its hashtag (#airbnb) are used to advertise the properties and destinations on its books. Not only does this help profile what the company has to offer in an authentic and genuine way, re-sharing content posted by your followers also strengthens customer relationships by demonstrating that you value their engagement.

@esthergorlee’s Instagram holiday snap.

Try competitions

When setting your followers a task to take photos and tag your brand, it’s important to provide an incentive. Some people are satisfied by brand recognition (for example, a mention or a re-post) but in other instances a prize is more effective. GoPro runs regular competitions asking customers to share their best photos and videos taken with one of its cameras. Prizes range from 50% off GoPro products to a $5,000 cash prize.

It’s a good strategy on the one hand because it enables brands to find out more about their followers (if they ask for data on entry), but it’s also a strong customer endorsement. What better way to show off the strength of your product than getting your followers to submit images and videos of them using it?

One of GoPro’s Instagram photos of the day.

Consider sponsored posts

Instagram’s new ad features are set to take social shopping to the next level. Instagram does not yet store payment details that would enable shopping directly from the app, but analysts predict it will soon. In the meantime, there’s still a lot you can do with sponsored posts. Why not get users to click through to your e-commerce site, install your new app or sign up to a mailing list?

Be authentic

Instagram’s audience is young, image-aware and digitally engaged, and it’s a community that wants to be fed interesting, relevant and useful content. Brand marketers need to respond with profiles, content and services that are appropriate. With each tactic that marketers deploy, the word that should be ringing in their ears is authenticity. Promote your brand messages, share appropriate product information and company news, but do it in a human, real way to keep your followers engaged.

More top tips

Stuck for inspiration? Look back through your most liked posts to see if there are any common themes (for example, pictures of food).

Pick your hashtags carefully: choose ones that are too common and they’ll get lost in the flood, so keep them relevant and use them sparingly.

Avoid being overly sales-y: as tempting as it might be to talk about your own product, it’s important to balance this with other interesting content.

Social media is also your customer service department: if someone has a product query, respond quickly and efficiently; it makes the customer feel good about your brand and is more likely to engage them.